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The Distance: A Different Kind Of Tb Race...


Snoogans

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Any input or ideas for tweaking would be welcome. Keep in mind that this should be as simple as possible:

 

I had this idea awhile back to have a TB Hotel for bugs in the form of a vehicle and then to get people all over the world to copy it. (Sounds like my Veet Voojagig caches, but with a bit more mass appeal. There's 4 or 5 of those out now.) I realize now that limiting the type of TB would limit interest.

 

The most recent TB Cannonball Run restrictions were a bit frustrating for me, because I had a completely different idea of what I wanted to enter for quite some time. I settled because I still really wanted to participate having helped greatly to win the last race and face it; The TB Cannonball Run is just plain cool.

 

My NEW IDEA was inspired by the song, "The Distance" by cake and the fact that so many of those TB racers are still going when the race is over.

 

This race will NEVER be over and anyone can join at any time with any bug.

 

Steps:

 

Hold an official THE DISTANCE event to kick off your local race. (Let's say 9/4/04)

 

Pick a secure spot for the cache.

 

Name the cache: The Distance + the name of your city or town. The Distance caches should be at least 75 miles apart.

 

The cache owner would need to create a sock puppet with the same name as the cache just like Cannonball Run to handle the bugs.

 

Collect TB's from participants for the race. NO ENTRY FEES!!!

 

Rules:

 

No TB owner can touch their own bug until it has moved three times.

 

To score points, your bug must find as many of the other The Distance caches as possible. Mileage is not an issue. The caches are the goal. Say 10 points per cache plus one bonus point for each cache visited in the network. (I. E. 10 points for the first visit to a NEW distance cache from its origin. 11 for the next and so on. No points for revisiting a previously visited cache EXCEPT the origin cache after 1,000 miles traveled. That can be 100 points plus their bonus number.)

 

OK. Other than the 3 move wait for TB owners on their OWN bugs, this race is wide open and world wide. Any bug of any type, size, new, old, moving in any direction for any distance, etc. An endless race that anyone can join at any time as long as the sock puppet for the origin cache has grabbed it.

 

Any takers??? I'll take care of Houston

 

The Distance

By Cake

 

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,

Engines pumping and thumping in time.

The green light flashes, the flags go up.

Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.

They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,

Fuel burning fast on an empty tank.

Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns.

Their prowess is potent and secretly stern.

As they speed through the finish, the flags go down.

The fans get up and they get out of town.

The arena is empty except for one man,

Still driving and striving as fast as he can.

The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,

And long ago somebody left with the cup.

But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns.

And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

He's going the distance.

He's going for speed.

She's all alone

In her time of need.

Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,

He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse,

He's going the distance.

No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine,

He's haunted by something he cannot define.

Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,

Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force.

In his mind, he's still driving, still making the grade.

She's hoping in time that her memories will fade.

Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,

He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.

The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,

And long ago somebody left with the cup.

But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns.

And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause he's going the distance.

He's going for speed.

She's all alone

In her time of need.

Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,

He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.

He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,

He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.

He's going the distance.

He's going for speed.

He's going the distance

Edited by Snoogans
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Any input or ideas for tweaking would be welcome. Keep in mind that this should be as simple as possible

It sounds fairly complicated to me, at first glance. Let me think about it a little bit more ...

Well, for the cache owner it's a bit more work. It's totally simple for the TB owners.

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To score points, your bug must find as many of the other The Distance caches as possible. Mileage is not an issue. The caches are the goal. Say 10 points per cache plus one bonus point for each cache visited in the network. (I. E. 10 points for the first visit to a NEW distance cache from its origin. 11 for the next and so on. No points for revisiting a previously visited cache EXCEPT the origin cache after 1,000 miles traveled. That can be 100 points plus their bonus number.)

So, if my TB goes to, say, the following caches, are these point values right?

 

10 points for The Distance: Philadephia

11 points for The Distance: Camden

12 points for The Distance: Trenton

0 points for The Distance: Philadephia

-----------------------------------

33 points total

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10 points for The Distance: Philadephia

11 points for The Distance: Camden

12 points for The Distance: Trenton

0 points for The Distance: Philadephia

-----------------------------------

33 points total

Almost correct, but lets make a change to reflect the origin. Everyone starts at zero.

 

0 points for The Distance: Philadephia (Say this is the origin.)

10 points for The Distance: Camden

11 points for The Distance: London

102 points for The Distance: Philadephia (back to origin score after 1,000 miles+ traveled)

-----------------------------------

123 points total

 

Competition would be close and it would take awhile to have a clear leader. This would give late starters some hope.

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This sounds like an interesting concept. If you get it to happen I would handle a cache for the Portland, Oregon area. Though I am still a bit unclear of the process, I am sure it will be come more apparent as the idea fills out.

Thanks Bazzle. That makes 3. There is a bunch of tweaking left to do with regard to scoring and tracking. We mainly need a network to form or there is no point in the race.

 

The main concept is to have a stat based race that anyone could join at ANY time. Kinda like ummmmm, geocaching itself. Get it?

 

would you keep score on behalf of everyone?

 

I think an official thread would be enough. Everyone could post their own score there. The only prize is bragging rights. That would be allot of work for one person to track. I think the real fun of this race would be in the obscure stats anyway.

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I'm going to bow out of becoming a cache owner for this race ... too much going on right now.

I hope it takes off, though! Lots of luck, and thanks for embedding this song in my head again. I "hear" it each time I check on details of the Cannonnball Race '04.

Edited by MissJenn
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I've been waiting for a race for half a year(missed cannonball run deadline) it sounds interesting but a bit confusing

Not really. Maybe the bonus points throw the figures off. Should we drop those? As the game progressed, they could be the most interesting part.

 

The entire game can be kept track of by the bug histories on the The Distance cache pages and the TB pages themselves. One would only have to look at the entries to calculate an individual TB's score. One thread in this forum could track all participants claims and anyone could see for themselves by doing a search.

 

What you have left is an endless game that anyone can join at any time.

 

Is anyone else interested?

 

Sn :lol::lol: gans

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"The Distance" is a really great song - what from Cake isn't?

 

It sounds like a good idea. I would go for it and put a cache in WEstern Washington. THis would require a whole network of chches though, so that would be the first step?

 

I actually thought about naming my CannonBall Run TB "The Distance", but didn't.

 

Anyway, count me in. :o

Edited by GeoRetep
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I will be more then willing to have a "distance cache" in the Southeastern NY/Northern NJ...not to far outside of NYC...

 

As others have said, I am still not quiet sure if I get the whole idea or not...but I have no doubt that your entire plan is laid out perfectly....after reading about "Quantum Leap"...there is no doubt in my mind Snoogans, that you have this one figured out down to the last detail...wow!!! Amazing job with "Quantum Leap"...

 

Anyway, back on topic...count me in...sounds like a lot of fun!!! :unsure:

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there is no doubt in my mind Snoogans, that you have this one figured out down to the last detail

LOL!

 

No, I don't have every detail nailed down. I'm so totally NOT a Type "A" personality. The main thing I want to do is not to have it turn into a JOB for me. Tracking the TB Cannonball run would be a nightmare for me and that's just 78 TBs. This race has the potential to have an order of magnitude more participants over a period of time. You think I wanna track all that? Uh, uh, no freakin way. Not me.

 

The way I have it planned, it would run itself. Some kinks need to be worked out, but like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cache network, I don't want sole ownership of the idea or the product. People will be into it and fall out of it and maybe get back into it later, just like the rest of geocaching. Heck, I could fall out as well.

 

A polished plan based on my idea for this race will work. All we need is to start off with at least a dozen caches, an official race thread, and a group of people who want to join in at the beginning. Anyone can join at any time after that. The game is completely statistical. Leaders will come and go. With attrition rates for bugs being what they are, a bug that starts the race in 2006 has nearly as much chance at taking the lead as one that is there at the beginning?

 

Does anyone else see this as clearly as I do?

 

Sn :P:) gans

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Well,

 

I'm going ahead with this idea. Maybe it will catch on. I'll link when it's approved.

Let me know when you get it ready. I'll ad a link for it to the travelbug race page.

travelbugraces.com

Kewl! I didn't know about that. I'm working on the listing now. Thanks! :o

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Well,

 

I'm going ahead with this idea. Maybe it will catch on. I'll link when it's approved.

Let me know when you get it ready. I'll ad a link for it to the travelbug race page.

travelbugraces.com

Kewl! I didn't know about that. I'm working on the listing now. Thanks! :o

It's only been up a few days. I need people like yourself with Bug races to make it succesful.

 

Feel free to let me know of any tips/advice you may have and feel free to post in that message forum in addition to here if you are looking for participants.

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I really like the concept of an endless race.

However, I don't like the cache-based point scheme because it favors early entries. Also, this "race" also lacks a finish line. The fun of cannonball (and other similar races) is seeing how your racer is doing with respect to the rest of the group.

 

My suggestion would be to have a network of "The Distance" caches. Then, identify one as the finish line. To win that leg, the TB must be logged into caches in three (or any other arbitrary number) different of states by at least three different cachers before logging into the finish.

Once a racer gets to the "finish line" cache, it is declared leg winner. Then, another Distance cache as selected the new finish line and away they go. Any new entry has just as much chance winning the next leg as all the other racers.

The facilitator just tracks the leg winners and can keep a map like that used for Cannonball (with racers and the finish line cache).

 

Again just a suggestion.

NWscout1

 

edited for typos

Edited by nwscout1
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I really like the concept of an endless race.

However, I don't like the cache-based point scheme because it favors early entries. Also, this "race" also lacks a finish line. The fun of cannonball (and other similar races) is seeing how your racer is doing with respect to the rest of the group.

 

My suggestion would be to have a network of "The Distance" caches. Then, identify one as the finish line. To win that leg, the TB must be logged into caches in three (or any other arbitrary number) different of states by at least three different cachers before logging into the finish.

Once a racer gets to the "finish line" cache, it is declared leg winner. Then, another Distance cache as selected the new finish line and away they go. Any new entry has just as much chance winning the next leg as all the other racers.

The facilitator just tracks the leg winners and can keep a map like that used for Cannonball (with racers and the finish line cache).

 

Again just a suggestion.

NWscout1

 

edited for typos

Thanks for the suggestion. This IS a work in progress.

 

Ummmm, that would sorta defeat the endless race idea. Don't cha think?

 

The whole point is to get in the lead for a period of time and own the bragging rights. Attrition rates among TBs would assure that later entries have a chance at the lead over time. There is also attrition rates among users as well. A lost TB with 200 points would eventually be passed. A user who fails to maintain his stats would eventually get passed.

 

This is a statistical race. It's not a race from A to B. There is NO finish.

 

Right now there is only ONE cache in this network. (Awaiting Approval.) None of the racers can score as such until another cache is placed and one racer actually makes it to another cache in the network. If another is placed 2 months from now those racers have an almost equal chance of scoring first.

 

Again, does anyone else see this as clearly as I do???

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I kind of like the idea of having multiple legs in the race. But the best way may be to have a sliding date range, so that on any given day the winner would be the bug that has traveled the most miles in the last 30, 60, 90, 180 days or whatever time period we choose. The co-winner could be the bug with the most caches visited in the same time period.

 

BTW, I would set up a race cache in northwest Colorado for the cause.

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